“I don’t think so.” Sharp eyes fastened on Ezra, and though he appealed to me for help, I shrugged. When my grandmother got something in her head, nothing could dissuade her. “He can’t let go of his anger, and while I understand”—she patted Ezra’s hand—“it’s not helpful. I’m happy he’s stood up for what’s right, but I can see the toll it takes on him. Take a break from all thismishigasand concentrate on the two of you. Remember what I said before.” She wagged her finger at us. “Nothing’s more important than love.”
“But sometimes love isn’t enough.” At my grandmother’s frown, Ezra put his fingers to his lips. “Nettie. It’s okay. Let’s watch the show and see if this is a place you’d want to buy a beach house if you win the lottery.”
It was a running joke between my grandmother and Ezra that if one of them won the lottery, they’d buy the other a house. Of course Ezra didn’t need to win to do that, and he’d been pushing me to pool our savings and buy a place together. My bank account being much less healthy, I’d demurred, which had become a point of contention. The already shaky foundation of his self-worth saw further cracks with my hesitation, and I hated that I was as bad as his parents and making all the decisions.
“Hey, Ezra?”
He pulled his attention away from the television show. “Yeah? What?”
“Why don’t you call some real-estate agents if you want and set up some appointments for Sunday?”
His wide, bright smile was all I needed to see. If only the problem with his parents could be solved so easily. It was tempting to be selfish and feed his resentment, driving the wedge further between them. The accelerant was there, laid out in a single line, waiting for the match to be lit. It wouldn’t take much for me to whisper in his ear and have their relationship blow up in flames. But I could never destroy Ezra’s desire to have his family together again.
I watched him joke with my grandmother, and it warmed my heart that he truly cared for her. He’d even lightened the burden for my mother by paying for Grace to work full-time now that insurance no longer covered her salary. And he and my mom had grown close over our months together, further adding to us knitting the fabric of our lives together.
The show ended, and my grandmother declared she would never have chosen the house the people on the show had. “No view of the beach? Why bother? You might as well live in the city. Bah.” A last sip of her tea and with a smack of her lips, she rose to her feet, Ezra’s hand steadying at her elbow. “I’m going to bed.” She allowed Ezra to kiss her good night. “Call your parents.”
“Don’t forget to scratch your tickets off, Nettie.” No one was more adept at avoiding a subject he didn’t want to speak about than Ezra.
When I hugged her good night and kissed her cheek, she whispered in my ear, “If he won’t do it, you help him. That’s what being a partner is.”
As I watched her and Grace walk to the bedroom, an idea began to form.
Ezra
Sunny slid the ring on Angie’s finger, and to the claps and cheers of us all, they kissed. Just like that, they were married. I wished I could enjoy it, but I hadn’t yet recovered from the shock of seeing my parents slip through the rear doors of the banquet room that had been converted into a ceremony space. I hadn’t given their names to the wedding planner I’d hired to help Angie. And it didn’t help that Roe remained frustratingly silent, to the point of shushing me, which he knew wasn’t going to fly.
“Aren’t you upset they’re here?” I spoke through my smile to Sunny and blew Angie a kiss as they walked down the aisle. “Who the hell invited them?”
Roe draped his arm over my shoulders. “Me. Last night when we got home and you went to sleep, I called and spoke to your father. I told him that if they wanted to have any hope of salvaging a relationship with you, they’d make every effort to come.”
Outraged, I opened my mouth to put him on blast, but he squeezed my shoulder. Hard. “Don’t get all self-righteous on me. Seems that Sunny had already beaten me to it and sent them an invitation. They were in the city.”
My head whirled. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Those damn reality shows had nothing on my life. “What were you hoping to accomplish with this setup?”
Other guests passed by us, most likely ready for a drink and the cocktail-hour food. My parents hovered by the doors, but when they saw Roe and me making no move to leave, they walked away.
Roe palmed my cheek. “Peace. For you…us, really. We’re together now three months, and it’s getting better and better for me.”
“For me too. It’s why I want us to make it permanent and buy a place together.”
“I do too, but I also want you to put your past to rest. I’ve left the past behind. It’s time for you to do so as well.”
I heard the words but still struggled. “How can I?”
“You don’t need to lean on the past to find your future anymore, because it’s here.” He put a hand over the center of his chest. “Right here. When we found each other again, it was like a jumper cable to my heart. We’re not the lost ones, babe. We’re found.”
And I wondered why I’d floundered when I’d had the answer all along. “Come on,” I said, taking Roe’s hand in mine. Guests had congregated in the larger room set aside for the dinner, and later on, we’d all dance at the disco. But first…
“There they are.” I spied my parents sitting at a small, round cocktail table with drinks in front of them. The poke of those famous razor-sharp cheekbones on my mother’s angular face accentuated her weight loss, but I refused to feel guilty. At any time they could’ve talked to me, but they chose not to.
“Hello.” I stopped by their table, Roe’s hand firmly clasped in mine.
“Hello. Would you like to join us?” My mother moved over the glittering Judith Leiber bag she wore to every important event, and despite my anger, I appreciated that she’d gone all out for the wedding.
“Do you want us to?”
“Ezra.” Roe frowned and pulled over a chair from a neighboring table. “Thank you, Claire.”
